Crawl
View the case- Brand
- Paramount Pictures
- Year
- 2019
- Objective
- Product Launch
- Industry
- Entertainment
- Mechanic
- Arcade & Action
- Platform
- Web
- Agency
- Oblio
Objective
The browser game launched alongside Paramount's theatrical release of Alexandre Aja's horror film "Crawl" on July 12, 2019, giving moviegoers a way to live out the film's premise instead of just watching a trailer for it. By putting players inside the same flooded basement as the film's heroine, OBLIO turned the film's core threat into a playable moment built to keep the release on people's minds.
Solution
The player runs on autopilot through a flooding basement, swerving left and right to dodge obstacles in their path and grab health kits as they go. An alligator is chasing from behind, and the closer it gets, the more the screen's edges flush red and the sound design ramps up, so the danger is something you see and hear building in real time, not just a number on screen. Clipping an obstacle ends the run immediately — there's no second chance, just like the trap the film's heroine is caught in. It plays straight in the browser as its own page, no download or login, so a session is just: open the link, run, and see how far you get before the alligator catches up.
- 1
The player starts the game in a browser, dropped into the same flooded basement from the film, and immediately begins running forward through the water.
- 2
The core loop is a dodge-and-collect run: obstacles and debris from the flooded basement appear along the path and must be avoided, while scattered first aid kits — the only pickup named — can be grabbed as the run continues.
- 3
A crocodile chases the player continuously; hitting an obstacle slows the run and can end it, since any collision may prove fatal.
- 4
As the crocodile closes in, the tension escalates through sound and a red gradient that spreads inward from the screen's edges, signaling the threat's proximity in the player's peripheral vision.
